WIN Week In Review: September 16, 2017

Senator Bernie Sanders – backed by 15 Democratic U.S. Senators – introduced Medicare For All Wednesday. Health care coverage for everyone in the country as a human right.

Sanders says working families will be better off financially paying for Medicare For All than giving money to for profit insurance companies that can literally nickel and dime us to death when we get sick.

[Senator Bernie Sanders]: “Under Medicare for all the average American family will be much better off financially than under the current system because you will no longer be writing checks to private insurance companies.”

Melissa Johnson-Camacho is a National Nurses United Registered Nurse.

[Melissa Johnson-Camacho]: “To me it’s immoral that anyone profits off of another person’s need for health care. And it it is repugnant to me that this profit comes from denying care.

I see the suffering and pain this causes every day in the faces of my patients.

Let’s put an end to this immoral system that’s putting profit before patients’ needs.”

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[Julie Kushner]: “Of course we’re thrilled about the win. The grad employees at Boston College worked really hard. They worked for several years to both form their union by talking to their co-workers but also to make their way through all of the legal steps this took before the National Labor Relations Board.

So there’s a great deal of excitement. And I think they’re celebrating and feeling that we have just moved that movement for grad organizing just one step forward.”

UAW Region 9A Director Julie Kushner talking about the union election win for Boston grad student workers. Kushner says these young workers are an inspiration for the future of the labor movement.

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National Nurses United’s RN Response Network is sending the second delegation of volunteer nurses to both Texas and Florida

to assist in treating hurricane victims. The nurse’s union’s Bonnie Castillo says these nurses will be there in a long-term commitment as residents recover from these monster storms.

[Bonnie Castillo]: “We don’t do the search and rescue, but what we do is provide the assistance in terms of hands on care in whatever capacity we can in the shelters.

And then also we know that it’s not gonna be cleaned up a week or two weeks or a few weeks. What’s happened here is gonna require a commitment. And we are making that commitment to go beyond what typically happens in the initial phase.”

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[Ken Sagar]: “It’s a bad law and it’s a bad deal for Iowans. And it’s clearly a naked power grab on the part of the Koch brothers and the Republican legislature.”

Ken Sagar, President of the AFL-CIO’s Iowa Federation of Labor.

Public sector unions in Iowa must start a re-certification election process required by an anti-worker law passed by Republicans controlling Iowa’s state legislature.

Public unions must vote every two years to keep unions certified – and the unions must win 50 percent plus one of all union members, not just those who turn out to vote.

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Workers Independent News (WIN) is focused on the issues and concerns of working people. As a news service, WIN is devoted to bringing the voices of workers, their families, communities and organizations to the widest public possible, using all means of electronic media. WIN packages news for distribution to radio stations, Internet radio, websites, for podcast and print publication.